Editor reviews

1 reviews

A Perfect Taylor

Reviewer

Written

January 29, 2018

Review

Robin C Taylor is a veritable musical phenomenon being not only a multi-instrumentalist but also an arranger, producer and record label owner. According to Robin's sleeve notes the tracks on this album are selected re-workings of his back catalogue material which, for some reason, did not at the time quite fully meet expectations. And so now bestowed with a lifetimes worth of studio experience and utilizing musicians from his current band he set about improving, rearranging and refining the material to elevate the finished product to as near 'perfect' as possible.
Not having heard these tracks in their original form one's judgement can only be based on the finished product here on this album entitled "Almost Perfect".
Certainly one of the first things that grabs you is the clear bright sound throughout the album with every facet of the recording being uniquely identifiable as each instrument comes to the fore whether it be playing in a lead role or as a comprehensive swathe of background of sound.
Generally, the direction of the music at first suggests a tendency towards the jazz rock end of the progressive spectrum. But actually that is not the case because throughout the entire album beautiful harmonic progressions exist in abundance with well-coordinated sumptuous melodic lead guitar and delightful keyboard interjections which ebb and flow creating magical interchanging colorful patterns and enchanting textures. If this alone wasn't enough to satiate your musical appetite an abundance of soprano, alto and tenor saxophone are gradually introduced to elevate the resultant musical brew to levels of supreme trancelike ecstasy.
Of course holding everything here together there are good solid percussion and bass contributions which certainly do not go unnoticed.
From the internet information available there is no secret that the resultant recording is very much the product of coordinated multi-track sound on sound manipulations with Robin playing most of the instruments himself. But the thing is, it sounds unique, interesting and wonderfully melodic. The resultant album being a great asset to any serious record collection.
Hey! Why haven't I come across this guy before?

NOTE FROM Robin's Home Page :-Taylor's Universe was from the very start meant to be a studio group exclusively; a 'vehicle' for Robin's experiments in sound and structure, and it has stayed that way ever since. Besides being a multi-instrumentalist, Robin sees the studio environment as an instrument.
Despite the many line-up changes, Taylor's Universe have always kept their own 'trademark' and shown a very high level, when it comes to originality including performance and sound, which have made them a second to none 'brand' in contemporary music from Scandinavia, as speaking of Progressive Rock. Media from most parts of the world seem to agree to this fact!